Clockwork Bluebird Covers: Round Two

January 20, 2012/

And again, new covers. It is amusing me how difficult this actually is…none of these are right, even now. There is no urgency, of course…just the frustration of wanting to get it right. Some or the artwork is rough/not fully painted, as these are mockups. The initial covers are here.

Revised and new versions:

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9 Comments

1 and 4 are quite striking and eye grabbing. 2 is intriguing, whereas 3 and 5 are more elegant. Though I do get ‘steampunk’ from 5, I don’t get ‘fairytale’. 1 gives me quite an Alice in Wonderland vibe – I think that might be my favourite! What don’t you like about it?

Thank you for that! 1 was always my favourite, but I started to worry that it was getting too busy and also that it was too literal in that it was 1) a Victorian nursery (main characters are brother and sister); 2) showed a female in vaguely steampunk attire; 3) had a feather on the floor, indicating the lost bird…you see what I mean?

Second-guessing myself is why I was begging for comments/critiques. I had looked at them so long that one minute it looked like a huge pile of irredeemable ass, and the next it looked like the most amazing thing ever. I literally couldn’t see it anymore.

I like two and four: the feather and the mechanical hand, or the mechanical bird. One is still nice. It has a bit of whimsy. I had a friend discuss with the difference in cover design for an e-book, often simpler, legible at thumbnail size, etc. I wish I still had the emails.

Ahaa :)
No, I don’t think it’s too busy at all! I think it gets the themes across well whilst grabbing the eye with that bright red and the rest, the nursery, the feather, make you wonder what it could be all about. That’s what you want in a cover imho!

@rowan, it is basically YA – the way that I was describing it was somewhere between middle grade (the first Harry Potter book) and YA (the later, darker books in the series).

I’ll post the synopsis of the book soon, and it will become more obvious since it’s a retelling of an old book rewritten as light steampunk fantasy. The original was twee/sugary and extremely dated with a hidden twisted and dark core, and what I was trying to do was to bring the dark fairy tale to centre stage without being disrespectful to the original story.

And thanks Jaedia – that’s the decision made then, since that is what I was trying for. *falls down in exhaustion*

Oh, there’s absolutely no contest! Number 1 is by far, the most unique and quirky.
The last two look like romance novels. The bird nice but no match for #1. The metal hand is definitely interesting but did I mention I love #1?